1. “New Moon” – Daniel Bachman. There’s not a much more relaxing instrument than the Bontempi Organ Bachman plays here. Similarly, there’s almost nothing more relaxing that listening to someone play acoustic guitar in the woods while relaxing. This track gives you 13 minutes of both of those things. It does build to a less-than-chill climax, but this is ultimately a long, expansive, exploratory guitar ramble by someone who’s really good at it. (It doesn’t sound like a bad jam band, is what I mean.)

2. “Quebec (Climber)” – Bing & Ruth. A swirling, whirling, propulsive piece that straddles the line between ambient and neo-classical. There are elements of the great, cloudy mountains of sound that John Luther Adams created on Become Ocean, grounded by piano and what sounds like clarinet. Very unique and interesting.

3. “Render Arcane” – Cruel Diagonals. Elements of drone, ambient, and soundtrack music are to be found in this unique instrumental track. There’s some sonic elements that set the scene of a forest, as well as the pitter-patter of melodic percussion (marimba) and ghostly manipulated vocals to further the feel of deep woods. Some industrial-style clanks and bonks are introduced, making me think that perhaps a machine is chasing our protagonist. Under all that, there’s a subtle but real groove that marks this as fascinating work.

4. “Loop 019” – J Foley. This track is from Drone Loops EP 1, which is a pretty descriptive title. This track is a bunch of distorted guitar, looped, chopped, layered, transformed, and droned. The tape hiss and tape chops create a bit of percussion, but mostly the internal inertia of the guitar recording keeps this thing humming along. It’s a bit doomy, but it’s actually way more zen than I expected. It’s sort of like a more minor-key School of Seven Bells with no vocals, maybe. Either way, it’s good. If you like heavy, dark post-rock, conceptual work, or weird drone/ambient stuff, you’ll be into this.

5. “Chasing the Path” – Grej. Music for modern dance is almost always interesting, as the structure and style of the piece are driven by and intertwined with the contours of the dance. Grej’s Chasing the Path is a long work created for dance; this 13-minute opening track is a piece primarily for piano and cello with some of the melodic percussion that is Grej’s specialty woven in. The lines and long and legato, flowing peacefully until about eight and a half minutes, when the pace picks up and the mood switches to a more ominous, foreboding one. Fans of composed music will find this to be a compelling work.